


Siegemas 2020 Day 1 (Family Gatherings)

by 1QueasyCrow



Category: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Video Games)
Genre: Christmas, Cute, F/F, Witty Banter, me having to type out my own relationship tags, or as witty as i can make it, rarepairs, what do I even tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27827761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1QueasyCrow/pseuds/1QueasyCrow
Summary: Christmas was a time for family, or so she'd heard.
Relationships: Jaimini Kalimohan "Kali" Shah/Aria "Alibi" de Luca
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11
Collections: Siegemas_2020





	Siegemas 2020 Day 1 (Family Gatherings)

**Author's Note:**

> Ending Siegeoween and kicking off Siegemas, it me! Happy Siegemas everyone! I was honored to partake in this amazing event with the prompt "spending time with family" enjoy!
> 
> Also thanks to grain-crain-drain for the motivation and the offer to beta but as I am lazy of ass I didn't get my own edits done in time so all mistakes are my own.

When Jaimini had signed the contract with Rainbow she did so with the intention of keeping the organization and its affiliates at arms length. It had worked well for a time, then, a GIS agent with an immediate and seemingly irrational dislike for Nighthaven, had returned from an extended undercover operation and turned everything upside down. Weeks stretched into tense months of biting comments across board room tables and burning glares across the hallways of Rainbow’s Greece station. Håvard had asked about it once but then she had sent him on a mission to a remote location in Siberia known for its infamously spotty cell reception. He had not mentioned it again.

After three months of these inexplicable dramatics, Jaimini found herself partnered with Specialist de Luca on one of Six’s operations to expose a gun running syndicate in Zurich. The operation had gone smoothly and given them both a number of surprising insights on the other. Not a week later Jaimini had offered Aria a chance to lead Nighthaven’s elite undercover division. An offer, to her honest surprise, the GIS agent had swiftly accepted.

It turned out that when they were not at each others’ throats for a perceived ideological differing, Jaimini found she quite enjoyed Aria’s company and the two had come to routinely finish a bottle of whiskey or wine over Jaimini's desk, and good conversation. Eventually, with Aria extensively proving her worth in various Nighthaven operations there was little time they were far from one another. Weeks turned into months and their professional closeness bled into personal lives.

Another year passed and at Aria's birthday she had asked what Jaimini was doing for Christmas that year. When she had replied with her usual holiday tradition of exactly nothing special, the italian specialist had immediately invited her to Christmas dinner with her and Adriano’s family. Initially Jaimini had declined, insisting there was work to be done and the most efficient time was when the office was not cluttered with people asking her questions left and right. Ever driven Aria had persisted and something in the back of Jaimini’s head insisted she agree.

Jaimini had never really celebrated Christmas, or any holiday really. Her parents had been loathe to ‘spend time with family’ as it were, for on most of the occasions the event would be subtle pleas for financial assistance rather than any genuine wish to enjoy quality time with relatives. For her, December the 25th was just another uniform day in the calendar, and to be honest she didn't even know where to begin when it wasn't.

About a week before Christmas, Jaimini was in the dorm at The Stadium in Greece when she heard a knock at her door. Most people had left for the holidays so it was a surprise that anyone would be bothering her now. She opened the door to find Aria on the other side bright eyed and smiling.

“Shouldn't you be in Milan?” it was not a particularly friendly greeting, most would say it wasn’t a greeting at all but Jaimini was not most people. Aria didn't seem offended though and answered without skipping a single beat.

”I was just making sure you weren't going to try to chicken out on Martello Christmas,” she said leaning against the doorframe “I did tell them you were coming and, it wouldn't do to have them think me an untruthful friend.”

“Says the professional liar,” Aria smiled at that, a real genuine grin, something Jaimini had not often noticed outside the times when no one else was around.

“Careful shah, you’re coming dangerously close to actually having a sense of humor.”

Jaimini rolled her eyes but shrugged off the joke, “Here, buy my ticket if you’re so worried,” she said, handing over her travel card.

Aria looked down at the proffered piece of plastic but made no move to take it.

“I think I'll use mine actually, think of it as a Christmas gift, from me to you,” she said with a smile that could only be described as devilish. To any onlookers this might have been seen as a genuinely friendly offer but both women knew it would be much more difficult for Jaimini to ‘miss’ her plane if it was on Arias dime. They stood there for a moment seeing if the other would break but eventually Jaimini conceded.

“Thank you then, I suppose,” she said, putting the card back in her pocket.

“Merry Christmas, Shah,” Aria said with a wink before turning and strolling back down the hall.

The Martello villa was a charming abode in the south of Italy. Red shingles glinted in the last bits of daylight, letting themselves slowly turn a multicoloured menagerie of shades under the shimmer of what must have been hundreds of meters of Christmas lights. A large fir tree stood proudly in front of the main building, it’s branches decked in more lights that sparkled off dozens of shining ornaments in the fast fading sun.

The interior of the home was far more boisterous than any she had ever encountered, the plain white walls of her childhood were replaced with a mess of cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, partners, and other relations. A hundred different laughs and conversations bubbled under the warm glow of strung incandescent bulbs that floated over the foray. Women buzzed about in a whirling dance as drinks, ornaments, huge platters of food and other Christmas items flew about the main hall going to and from the kitchen with stunning precision. Everyone partook with veritable gusto.

It should have made Jaimini uncomfortable, this mass of chaos, a maelstrom with no direction, no heading. It should have been a disaster, but apparently Aria could extend that unshakable calm that always followed her around to her friends when she wished.

The night ended with more than a few bottles of wine and a single hotel room. The next morning was spent lazing in scattered sheets and delighting in each others’ presence. 

From then on it just seemed natural to be around one another. Soon after, apart from operations, there were few days or nights they spent separate and each was the first one to call for the other when anything happened.

And now, years on, as she sat in the midst of ten screaming Italian children, she could not imagine it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry the ending was rushed, sorry the ending was cheese, sorry it jumped around more than a mighty bean, this is what you get to kick off the holiday season, merry Christmas ya filthy animals.
> 
> On a side note to the end note, I really want to post more about the beginning of their relationship this is but a summarized version, I have many notes and thoughts on the matter, please ask me about them...pls...im begging you.
> 
> Catch me on the tumblz at 1QueasyCrow


End file.
